This invention relates to multi-contact electrical connectors of the type which are intended for installation on a flat conductor cable and which serve to connect the conductors of the cable to terminal posts of other complementary terminal devices. The embodiment of the invention disclosed herein is particularly intended for connecting the conductors of a flat cable to terminal posts on a panel board of the type used in the telephone industry and the description of the invention set forth below makes specific reference to panel boards of this type. However, it will be apparent that the principles of the invention can be used under a wide variety of circumstances and for many other applications.
It is common practice in the telephone industry to form interconnections among large numbers of conductors by means of panel boards having terminal posts extending therefrom on a grid pattern. Connections between individual posts on the panel board are made by discrete wires which have their ends connected to preselected posts. It is also necessary to connect the conductors in individual cables which extend from some remote location to the terminal posts on the panel board. It is now accepted practice to use electrical connectors for these cable-to-post connections and the connectors are designed such that the connectors can be mated with the upper free end portions of the posts and above the discrete wire connections which are provided on the lower portions of the posts adjacent to the surface of the panel board. The posts are relatively small, for example, square posts having a width of 0.025 inch are commonly used with the spacing between adjacent posts being 0.125 inch.
The cables are also quite small and have the wires on closely spaced centers of about 0.03 inch with each cable having twenty-four or more conductors therein. It will be realized that the dimensions of the cable and the spacing of the posts precludes the use of most conventional types of multi-contact electrical connectors. One specialized connector which is presently used for these cable-to-post connections comprises a housing having a small printed circuit board, usually referred to as a paddleboard, integral therewith. The conductors on the printed circuit board extend to the terminals in the connector and the conductors in the cable are connected to the conductors on the paddleboard by soldering. This system achieves the dimensional and performance requirements of cable-to-terminal post connections but it is relatively expensive and the installation of a paddleboard connector on the end of a cable is a time-consuming and tedious procedure. Furthermore, different types of cables (as regards total number of conductors and the number of signal and ground conductors in the cable) are used and many different wiring patterns of the conductors of the cable and the terminal posts are required. Paddleboard connectors can be designed to accommodate these various requirements but again, the installation costs are relatively high and the system is not amenable to the high production rates which would be desirable.
In accordance with the principles of the instant invention, a connector housing is provided which has one or two rows of electrical contact terminals therein and each terminal has a wire-receiving portion which receives, and establishes electrical contact with, a wire upon movement of the wire laterally of its axis and into the wire-receiving portion. A commoning strap or commoning band is also provided on the housing which also has wire-receiving members thereon, the arrangement being such that selected wires can be connected to the commoning band only, to one of the terminals only, and to both the commoning band and to one of the terminals. A wide variety of options are available as regards the number of signal conductors which are connected to the contact terminals, the number of ground conductors which are connected to the commoning strap or band, and the number of ground conductors which are connected to both the commoning band and one of the terminals.
The connector assembly comprises further a housing cover means which is dimensioned to be assembled to the housing and adjacent to the contact terminals and the commoning band. This cover means has wire-receiving channels thereon so that the wires in a cable can be positioned in the wire-receiving channels prior to assembly of the cover member to the housing. When the cover means is assembled to the housing, the wires, both signal conductors and ground conductors, are inserted into the wire-receiving portions of the terminals and into the wire-receiving members on the commoning band in accordance with a predetermined wiring scheme. The procedure for locating the wires in the cover members may be carried out manually or may be carried out by automatic or semi-automatic assembly machinery.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an improved multi-contact electrical connector. A further object is to provide an improved method of connecting the conductors of a cable to the terminals of a multi-contact connector. A further object is to provide an improved connector for use with cables of the type which have a plurality of signal conductors and one or more ground conductors associated with each signal conductor. A further object is to provide an electrical connector assembly which can be used for a wide variety of wiring arrangements which involve the formation of electrical connections between the conductors of a flat conductor cable and terminal posts which extend from a panelboard.